Learn the essential Asian kitchen tools every home cook should have—and why they matter. The beauty is that every single one is versatile so you don’t need too many items —you’ll reach for them often, not tuck them away to gather dust! Whether you’re tossing together a quick Asian stir-fry, boiling noodles, or slow-simmering soups and rich stews, the right tools for Asian cooking make all the difference in creating authentic flavors at home.
Table of contents
These Asian kitchen tools are going to up your home cooking and make you into a foodie officianado. The tools are very simple to use for anyone to elevate their Asian recipes and are versatile enough to use on everyday foods from everyday eggs, to browning proteins, and using all-the-time.
No need to feel that anything on this Asian tools list is too much or a “one time use” item because it is well thought out.
Even if your kitchen is small or your space is limited, you can create Asian dishes with refinement and the perfect textures.
Everyday Important Pots and Pans
Carbon Steel Skillet
A carbon steel skillet is one of the most versatile tools for Asian home cooking and something you can use EVERYDAY.
Similar to cast iron but lighter and quicker to heat, it’s perfect for high-heat cooking.
It’s non-stick and healthy to use. Make perfect omelettes, fried eggs, crispy rice paper omelettes, stir fry, pancakes, seared fish, and use this pan every single day.
- Why it’s essential: Heats evenly and adjusts quickly—ideal for stir-fry and searing.
- Best uses: Scrambled egg omelets, Stir-fries, pan-frying crispy bottom potstickers, searing meats, sautéing vegetables. Make perfect ube pancakes and any seared meats dishes like chicken with string beans.
- Pro tip: Has a natural nonstick surface; improves the more you use it.
- Use avocado oil to season your pan.
- Be sure to always dry it after cleaning.
- Baking soda and wiping it down or a quick swipe with paper towel is all you need to keep it clean for simple cooking.
Dutch Oven
Make arroz caldo, sinigang, fried chicken or any deep fried foods, and braise pork shoulder to name a few ways to use a Dutch Oven.
- Used for: Frying karaage chicken, frying spring rolls, braising pork belly, making large batches of soup or congee, making curry.
- A Dutch Oven is truly essential because it is a perfect heating vessel, presents beautifully, and also cooks foods to be so tender.
- Oil gets perfectly heated without burning and smoking because of the thick bottom.
- Lumpia and fried foods like panko deep fried chicken come out so crispy and golden.
- Why essential: Distributes heat evenly for deep-frying and long, slow cooking.
Braiser or Cast Iron Pan with Lid
- Used for: Stews, curries, soy-braised meats, slow recipes like Filipino pork adobo.
- Why essential: Locks in moisture and flavor while tenderizing ingredients and creating fall-off-the-bone meat braises.
- Go straight from stove to table. Braiser pans are beautiful to look at.
Wok
- Used for: Stir-fries, easy fried rice, steaming, shallow frying.
- Why essential: High heat retention and sloped sides make tossing food easy. It’s easy to use a wok everyday for a variety of foods and especially if you love stir fry and vegetables.
Best Ever Multi-Use Kitchen Tools
Breville Hand Immersion Blender (with chopper/processor/whisk)
My personal favorite (mine’s lasted over a decade). Compact, powerful, and replaces multiple appliances all-in-one.
- Used for: Blending soups directly in the pot like this butternut squash ginger soup, whisking sauces, salad dressing, whipping super fluffy Chantilly or matcha whip cream in a few minutes, and chopping aromatics in seconds.
- Why essential: Saves counter space and time—perfect for everything from lumpia prep to whipped cream for Hong Kong mango pancakes.
Spider Ladle
- Used for: Spider ladles are ideal for scooping dumplings, blanching vegetables, removing tempura fried foods from oil.
- Why essential: Lifts food while leaving liquid or scalding hot oil behind.
- A spider ladle is perfectly slotted to hold the food while still draining the liquid or oil.
Wire Mesh Strainers
- Used for: Smoothing sauces and sweet dessert fillings, straining broths, catching bones or aromatics.
- Why essential: Fine mesh keeps even small bits out of stocks and sauces.
- Having wire mesh strainers do everything from draining pasta and cleaning salad, to elevating your sauces so they are noticably smoother and silky.
High-Heat Candy Thermometer
- Used for: Never burn your fried foods and egg rolls again. Guessing the temperature of oil leads to soggy deep fried foods, over cooked, burnt, and vey uneven cooking.
- Using a deep fry thermometer helps Frying tempura, sugar syrups, caramel sauces, and making panko shrimp and fried spring rolls like chicken lumpia come out golden brown…the way fried food should be.
- Why essential: Removes guesswork; ensures precise oil and sugar temps.
- Easy to adjust your oil temperature on the stove.
- Eliminates need for special deep frying pots or extra kitchen equipment.
- Works well to clip on any pot or Dutch Oven
Soup Skimmer
- Used for: Removing foam and fat from broths and soups.
- Why essential: Keeps soups like collagen-rich Filipino bulalo soup clear, clean, and more flavorful.
- Necessary to skim off scud when making collagen soup and anything where you are boiling meat. A must for making bone broth.
Chopsticks
- Used for: Eating, stirring noodles, whisking eggs, and flipping small foods.
- Why essential: Multipurpose for cooking and dining; delicate yet precise.
- Chopsticks don’t touch the food, but only a little bit, as to not smush or disturb when turning on the pan.
Mortar and Pestle
- Used for: Grinding spices, pounding aromatics, making curry pastes.
- If you cook with lemon grass or like making spicy sambal oelek or authentic Japanese sesame sauce…you need a mortar and pestle.
- Why essential: A mortar and pestle is an ancient tool that truly unlocks fresh, bold flavors that pre-ground spices can’t. Doesn’t overprocess or foam the ingredients so the flavor is extra fresh and nutrients intact.
Kitchen Tools you will use Everyday
Long Flat Metal Spatula
- Used for: Flipping zucchini pancakes, pressing leftover rice to make garlic fried rice, and getting directly under any seared foods.
- Searing and flipping scallops is easy, pancakes flip with ease, and getting under flaky fish is simple while never breaking the fish.
- Why essential: Long and thin, ideal for carbon steel flat pans.
Long Metal Tongs
- Used for: Don’t burn yourself when turning foods in hot oil or on the skillet. Grilling meats, flipping chicken skewers or grilled squid on the barbie, tossing vegetables.
- Use it to flip food in the air fryer or oven
- Why essential: Keeps hands safe over flame or oil.
Mixing Bowls (preferably glass)
- Used for: Marinating meats, mixing sauces, and prepping dumpling fillings.
- When sauces have lots of vinegar or citrus, glass mixing bowls are more ideal for storing/prepping/ marinating.
- Why essential: Non-porous, easy to clean, works for hot or cold prep.
- Perfect storage for keeping food, like salad, fresh for longer.
Rice Cooker
- Used for: Make perfect rice everytime. Having a rice cooker is foolproof. You don’t need to mess up the timing or worry about undercooked or soggy rice on the stovetop.
- Why essential: Consistent results—rice is a cornerstone of Asian cuisine. Rice goes with so many meals, ulam, and basically…you can eat rice everyday. Having a rice cooker is life!
- A good rice cooker will last decades…I’ve had my Tiger brand rice cooker since college and it has never failed me.
Steam Basket or Bamboo Steamer
- Used for: Dumplings, dim sum, steamed fish and vegetables. A steamer basket or a more special bamboo steamer will make very healthy and perfect steamed foods.
- Why essential: Healthy, simple steaming while preserving flavor. Makes fluffy sushi rice for diy sushi night.
Must have Cutting and Prep Tools
Excellent Chopping Board
The best chopping board you can get is something like a Boos block or more economical bamboo chopping board. To really elilminate chances for salmonella and bacteria buildup…you can’t go wrong with a hygenic titanium cutting board that is super clean, mess free, and completely elimates the chances of germs filling any cracks and crevices.
- Used for: Cutting vegetables, prepping meats, slicing sushi-grade fish.
- Why essential: Sturdy surface that stands up to cleavers and heavy chopping.
- Asian cuisine usually involves cutting, garnishes, prepping, cleaning, and chopping so you need a quality cutting board.
Sharp Chef’s Knife
You don’t need too many knives if you are a homecook looking to cook these Asian recipes. One good, sharp knife is enough to cut and chop a huge variety of ingredients.
- Used for: Everyday slicing, dicing, mincing.
- Why essential: The most important kitchen tool—safe, precise, efficient.
Cleaver
If you are cutting huge proteins, bone-in meats, and butchering whole chicken for delicious soups and barbeques, you need a medium-sized cleaver to create ease in your life.
- Used for: Breaking down chicken, cutting bone, chopping aromatics.
- Why essential: Multipurpose and powerful, a staple in Asian kitchens because it does the armwork for you.
Microplane
Sometimes overlooked, a microplane literally makes the zest for your foods and is a total must have kitchen tool for Asian and all recipes. It will grate the aromatics so it blends so perfectly in your food, or use all the time to grate parmesan cheese for miso mushroom pasta and over shiitake mushrooms stir fry.
- Used for: Grating ginger, garlic, nutmeg, zesting citrus.
- Why essential: Adds fresh aromatics into sauces, marinades, or dressings easily.
Wire Cooling Rack
- Used for: Crisping golden fried foods and air-fried foods.
- Why essential: Resting meats and cooling fried foods on an elevated wire cooling rack is a total must so the exterior is golden and crisp. Do not use a plate with paper towels because steam just gets trapped under the food. Use a wire rack.
Starter Kit: The Must-Have Asian Cooking Tools for Beginners
If you’re diving into Asian home cooking, you don’t need a full professional setup right away and here is a condensed list of kitchen tools to get you started with Asian homecooking while complementing all your other meal makings.
A handful of flexible, everyday tools will carry you through most dishes while elevating your cooking game at home. These are the essentials worth starting with:
- Long Metal Spatula – Perfect for stir-fries, fried rice, and flipping scallion pancakes. Its slim, sturdy shape makes it ideal for chopping up, shuffling, and flipping almost everything.
- Rice Cooker – Foolproof rice every time—truly a cornerstone of Asian meals. Rice can be served with most Asian recipes…so a solid rice cooker is essential.
- Dutch Oven – The everything pot. Braise pork belly, simmer soups and broths, deep-fry tempura, sear meats, or even handle big holiday meals. It does it all.
- Wire Cooling Rack – Doubles for draining fried foods, cooling baked goods, or setting dumplings after steaming.
- High-Heat Thermometer – Takes the guesswork out of frying oils, sugar syrups, or candy-making.
- Mesh Strainers – Rinse rice, strain broths and tapioca pearls, skim soups, sift flour, or make smooth sauces. Multipurpose and always handy.
- Long Metal Tongs – Inexpensive but irreplaceable. Flip skewers, grab sizzling meats, or safely move food out of hot oil.
- Carbon Steel Skillet – Your everyday, all-day pan. Lighter than cast iron, it sears meats beautifully, stir-fries veggies, makes fried rice, cooks eggs in the morning, and can easily replace most pans in your kitchen.
This starter set will cover almost every basic recipe, and as you cook more, you can build up your collection of tools to match your growing skills.
Equipping your kitchen with the right tools is the secret to unlocking authentic Asian flavors at home. With each dish, you’ll find that the right, basic, simple, but necessary Asian cooking kitchen tools don’t just make creating recipes easier—they make it more fun, flavorful, and deeply rewarding.
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